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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

January 11, 2010 — Bifocal lenses can moderately slow myopic progression in children with high rates of myopic progression after 24 months, according to new research published in the January issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

"Myopia is a common refractive problem, particularly in East Asia, where reported prevalence values in children can be as high as 50% to 60% by the age of 12 years. Prevalence of myopia is also high among Asian children living in Western countries," write Desmond Cheng, OD, MSc, PhD, formerly from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, and currently from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, and colleagues.

"A number of well-designed prospective studies have investigated the effect of positive lenses, in bifocal or multifocal form, on myopic progression in children. However, bifocals and multifocals have proven to be relatively ineffective myopia-control treatments in children," the authors write.

Myopic progression rate appears to be an important factor in determining the effectiveness of multifocal lens treatment, the authors point out.

The aim of this study was to determine whether bifocal and prismatic bifocal spectacles could control myopia in children with high rates of myopic progression, defined as 0.5 diopters or more in the preceding year.

The study randomly assigned 135 Chinese Canadian children (73 girls and 62 boys) with myopia of at least 1.00 diopter to receive single-vision lenses (n = 41), +1.50-diopter executive bifocals (n = 48), or +1.50-diopter executive bifocals with a 3-prism diopter base-in prism in the near segment of each lens (n = 46).

The authors explain that their randomization was done by putting subjects' file numbers on slips of paper and drawing them from a container at random. In addition, subjects and the investigator were aware of the treatment assignments, as blinding was difficult to achieve because the lens treatments were visually very different.

The mean age of the children was 10.3 years (standard error [SE], 0.15 years), and their mean visual acuity was −3.08 diopter (SE, 0.10 diopter).

Myopic progression was measured by an automated refractor under cycloplegia, and increase in axial length was measured by A-scan ultrasonography at 6-month intervals for 24 months.

Of the original 135 children, 131 (97%) completed the trial at 24 months.

The results showed that myopic progression averaged −1.55 diopter (SE, 0.12 diopter) for children who wore single-vision lenses, −0.96 diopter (SE, 0.09 diopter) for those who wore bifocals, and −0.70 diopter (SE, 0.10 diopter) for those who wore prismatic bifocals.

Significant Effect of Lens Design

There was a significant effect of lens design on the degree of myopic progression (P < .001), the authors report. Compared with the single-vision lens group, the magnitude of mean myopic progression was −0.59 diopter (P < .001) in the bifocal lens group and −0.85 diopter (P < .001) less in the prismatic bifocal lens group.

The treatment effect of bifocals (0.59 diopter) and prismatic bifocals (0.85 diopter) was significant, with a P value less than .001, and both bifocal groups had less axial elongation than the single-vision lens group (0.21 mm; P < .001), the authors report.

The findings of this study could be generalized to children with rapidly progressing myopia, irrespective of ethnicity, although this clearly needs to be tested, the authors state.

Limitations of the study include the use of an atypical randomization scheme to assign subjects to treatment groups and potential bias because the investigator was not masked.

The authors concede that the treatment effect of bifocal and prismatic bifocal lenses of 38% and 55%, respectively, that they found in their study — although greater than those in other studies — is still modest.

"Whether or not the effect tapers off will decide clinical significance," they write. "If the treatment effects continued over time, then the treatment could have a significant role in preventing the development of very high pathologic myopia."

For now, they conclude, bifocals should be offered to myopic children "with caution" in clinical practice.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

TOP STORIES 1/13/2010Younger male myopes have higher retinal detachment risk 4 years after cataract surgeryAm J Ophthalmol. 2009;149(1):113-119.Younger age, male gender and increased axial length were associated with an elevated risk of retinal detachment 4 years after cataract removal and IOL implantation, according to a study.Myopic eyes are especially prone to various ocular pathologies and postoperative complications. The prevalence of myopia among young people has increased to about 10% to 25% in Western nations and 60% to 80% in Eastern nations, the study authors said."Inasmuch as the World Health Organization reports myopia as the leading cause of visual impairment, myopia-related complications remain an important concern for ophthalmologists," they said. "Myopia is a proven significant risk factor for [retinal detachment] after cataract extraction."The prospective cohort study included 9,388 patients who underwent extracapsular cataract extraction with phacoemulsification and IOL implantation in Taiwan between August 1999 and December 2001. Mean patient age was 65.96 years. Mean follow-up was 79.21 months.Axial length was less than 23 mm in 4,445 eyes (47.34%), 23 mm to 26 mm in 4,394 eyes (46.8%), and 26 mm or more in 549 eyes (5.85%).Study data showed an overall cumulative 8-year retinal detachment rate of 2.31%. The mean length of time between cataract removal and retinal detachment diagnosis was 40.6 months. Male gender, age younger than 50 years, history of retinal detachment in the contralateral eye and phacoemulsification correlated with retinal detachment risk; the associations were statistically significant (P = .01, P = .002, P = .005 and P = .013, respectively).In addition, eyes with axial length of more than 26 mm had a significantly higher risk of pseudophakic retinal detachment than eyes with axial length of 23 mm to 26 mm (P = .0003). A late increase in the risk of retinal detachment was highest among male patients with high myopia."Although we did not have data about the characteristics of [retinal detachment] in our study, we speculate that anomalous posterior vitreous detachment developed years after cataract extraction and caused the late wave of increased risk for pseudophakic [retinal detachment] in our results," the authors wrote. "However, this speculation could not explain the lack of late increase in females."Patient education and prophylactic treatment are critical for managing risk factors, they said.